Pat Barch, literacy coordinator for the library, says, “Our American Dream project is really very important to us, because the library has been providing citizenship classes for about five years now.” In recognition of the library’s five-year-long commitment to citizenship education, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services invited the library to host its third naturalization … Continue reading Becoming New Americans
Unfortunately, according to Christian Minter, NLM Associate Fellow at Welch Library, Johns Hopkins University, 36% of adults in the US (87 million people) have basic or below basic health literacy. Low health literacy leads to $106 to $236 billion in health care costs annually because of higher use of emergency rooms, longer hospitalizations, and other … Continue reading Public Health and Public Libraries
Dale Dougherty, founder and executive chairman of Maker Media; Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America; John Palfrey, head of school at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; and Meaghan O’Connor, assistant director for programs and partnerships at the District of Columbia Public Library offered insightful remarks. Each tried to answer that … Continue reading Building the New Nostalgia
“I found out through one of the librarians at the Glendale (Ariz.) Public Library,” said Larson, who is part of the library’s Teen Library Council. “Luis and I take a media production class at school, and so we thought it would be really fun to do.” CSLP is a collective effort to bring high-quality summer … Continue reading Unmasking Talent: Teens Create Summer Reading Videos
Not only can students learn from these presentations but so can professors who develop LIS courses and help students gain the necessary skills to succeed in 21st-century libraries. This need to bring the real and the academic worlds together underscores the importance of the work that the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has done … Continue reading The Future of Library Services to Teens
A pretty typical moment for most librarians, Diggs says, except that Tuesday morning, April 28, was no typical day. Just 12 hours before, rioting had erupted across the street from the Pennsylvania Avenue branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, when protests against the high-profile death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray turned violent. As a … Continue reading Libraries Respond to Community Needs in Times of Crisis
Thanks so much for your time this morning, Dr. Hayden. Can you describe what’s going on at the library right now? Yes, I’m here at the Pennsylvania Avenue branch with National Guard troops surrounding the building. The state’s attorney just announced that the six officers will be indicted [in Freddie Gray’s death]. The library is … Continue reading Baltimore’s Library Stays Open During Unrest
Tied to the economy of libraries, the vendors that make up the library technology industry support a stable but highly constrained economic sector, with global opportunities. Library budgets may never recover to pre-recession levels, fueling interest in technology to improve their efficiency and the impact of collection resources. Products able to deliver efficiency, innovation, and … Continue reading Library Systems Report
This and other library trends of the past year are detailed in ALA’s State of America’s Libraries Report 2015, made available during National Library Week, April 12–18, both as an American Libraries digital supplement, as well as on the ALA website at ala.org/americas-libraries and as a PDF file. As society continues to change the way … Continue reading The State of America’s Libraries 2015
In April 2013, Kentucky Circuit Courts ruled against the Campbell County Public Library and the Kenton County Public Library, a decision that would have resulted in the libraries losing property tax revenues dating as far back as 1979. Local library advocates appealed the ruling, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals has announced its decision to … Continue reading A Victory for Kentucky Libraries
Any library can position itself to guide local authors toward becoming savvy and competent independent publishers. Ebooks and print-on-demand options leverage the strength of their platforms to reach larger audiences and make publishing possible within the library. Libraries can support the growth and autonomy of local writers by connecting them to relevant technology, tools, and … Continue reading Leading Self-Publishing Efforts in Communities
Of course it wasn’t Freudenberger and the community alone who made these changes happen; it was thanks in part to an initiative called Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC), which launched a program in April 2014 involving 10 library districts. The initiative is the result of a partnership between the American Library Association and the Bethesda, Maryland–based … Continue reading Libraries Transforming Communities
